Noelle Kelley had a razor-sharp eye for detail, picking apart every flaw in the project with surgical precision — almost like she was the one running the show. That both grated on Damir's nerves and made him uneasy. Why should she, with the same Kelley last name, get to live like royalty from birth? Why had the Kelley Group poured a hundred million dollars into her marriage? Was Patrick Jordan really worth that kind of investment?
To Damir, that money could've been better spent funding his own visions. He could've built something real with that kind of backing. But unfortunately, Walter Kelley — Noelle's grandfather — had always been notoriously stingy when it came to Damir. Even his position at the Kelley Group felt like a handout, as if Walter had tossed him a few crumbs to keep him quiet. The projects that landed on his desk? Leftovers. This so-called venture in a one-horse town was just another dead end, leaving him no real room to get ahead.
After nearly a year of scraping by on scraps, Damir figured he'd earned the right to demand more. So when Walter yanked the project away and handed it to Noelle of all people — someone who looked totally out of her depth — it felt like a slap in the face. A public insult he couldn't just swallow.
Pushing down the simmering frustration, Damir forced a friendly smile. "Noelle, dear, which project are you talking about? I'm not sure I follow."
"The Majestic Estate project," Noelle replied, matching his smile with one just as practiced. "Grandpa mentioned last night that it's being handed over to me. The official notice might not be out yet, but I figured someone on your team would've given you a heads-up. So I thought we could talk about it directly."
Alarm bells went off in Damir's head. He needed to play this carefully.
Playing dumb, he said, "I haven't seen any official notifications, and my team wouldn't have access to that kind of info anyway. Who exactly told you this?"
Noelle didn't need to point fingers at his subordinates. She knew exactly which higher-ups in the company were in his corner. In her past life, after her grandfather's death and the messy fallout from her father's affair, the Kelley Group had fallen into the hands of the extended family. Their greed had been bottomless. When a cash flow crisis hit, not one of them lifted a finger. Noelle had been left to clean up the wreckage.
She'd done everything she could to honor her grandfather's dying wish and save the company, but by then, it was already too late. Even with the business instincts she'd sharpened over time, the corporation was hanging by a thread. This time around, she was determined to cut off every threat before it could do real damage.
"Damir," she said, tilting her head with an innocent smile, "can you answer the three questions I asked earlier?"
Damir's smile flickered. Straightening his posture, he switched to a condescending tone. "Noelle, dear, this project is extremely complicated with layers of details. I can't just sum it up on the spot."
"Then give me the short version," Noelle pressed.
Damir clenched his fists beneath the table, his face hardening as he dropped the act. "You've barely been with the company. I don't want this project to tank."
The message was obvious: he didn't trust her, and he hoped she'd see her own limits.
Noelle just smiled. "But Grandpa trusts me with it."
If the chairman of the Kelley Group believed in her, what right did Damir have to question her?
"And," she added, her voice dipping into something softly dangerous, "I've gone through the financial reports. Looks like this project is already losing money."
Damir froze. Did she really catch the inconsistencies? No way. He told himself she was just bluffing.
Determined, he shifted tactics. "Noelle, you're too inexperienced to understand the complexities here. Handling the relocation alone is brutal. It takes years of real experience."
Unfazed, Noelle dismantled his argument in one clean stroke. "The difficulty lies in the project itself, not in my taking over. And let's be real — you've been here less than a year. So what experience are you really talking about?"
Damir's scowl deepened, his patience wearing thin. "Noelle, even if my experience is limited, I have seasoned advisors behind me. Are you prepared to handle everything on your own? As for the suppliers — the current prices came from my negotiations. If you take over, costs are going to go up. Surely the board wouldn't pay more just to hand you control."
"Believe it or not, the announcements are already out," Noelle replied with a radiant smile, leaving Damir fuming.
He didn't have time to argue with her. He had to get to the suppliers — fast. Compete with Noelle? She was just a pretty face waiting to crack.
Oddly enough, Noelle had Damir's bluntness to thank. Since the company veterans refused to mentor her, she'd been forced to look for allies on the outside. Plus, the supplier's pricing was suspiciously low. What kind of pull did Damir have to score deals like that on a minor project?
Meeting her best friend Vivian Carter for lunch seemed like the best way to get a realistic sense of market rates. Noelle sent a confirmation text and headed straight to the bistro downtown.
